


bouquet of spider lillies

by quartzguts



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Pre-Slash, except i havent read comics in 10000000 years, muddy frankensteined continuity, probably very out of character but who cares, set in the 2009 batman and robin run, sort of shippy sort of not, theyre out of character half the time in the actual comics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27387382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartzguts/pseuds/quartzguts
Summary: Dick is sad, Jason helps (?).
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Kudos: 27





	bouquet of spider lillies

Jay meets him on a Gotham rooftop just past two in the morning.

He’s smoking. He’s always smoking these days. Normally Dick would smack the cigarette out of his hand, say something about his health, but tonight he just doesn’t have the energy. He was already running on empty when he and Damian got back from patrol, and arguing with his surrogate-little-brother-slash-sidekick drained whatever he had in reserves. It was only out of sheer desperation to feel _something_ other than crippling ennui that he put on his old nightwing costume and texted Jason.

“Been a while since I’ve seen you in that getup. You look good,” Jason says. Dick can’t tell if he’s being genuine or not. He could never tell with Jason, could never read him. He thinks, deep down, maybe Bruce couldn’t, either. “Where’s your little birdie?”

“Probably lighting my room on fire,” Dick says flatly. “Or setting off a smoke bomb in the batcave. Or using our fine art collection as targeting practice.”

Jason snorts. “Tough raising a kid, isn’t it?”

“Nn.” Dick isn’t sure whether he consciously rolls over, or if he simply can’t sit up anymore. All he knows is one minute he’s looking out over the city skyline and the next, he’s staring up into the black void of night. The moon is no where to be seen. Once, Dick would’ve known when the new moon was, would have factored the level of light in planning for missions. Once, Bruce would have done the same.

But, well, he’s just so _tired_ these days.

“Damn. Guess the brat’s really taken it out of you, huh?” Jason kneels above him. His mouth is turned up into a smirk. “Want me to take over?”

“No,” Dick says, as firmly as he can manage. “And he’s not a brat. He’s just… struggling to adjust. That’s all.”

“You always were too forgiving, Dickie.” Jason pats his cheek. It’s not unkind. “That’s your greatest weakness.”

Dick yawns. “Not that awful a weakness to have.”

“Better to care too much than too little,” Jason mutters.

Dick closes his eyes. He can’t handle Jason’s baggage on top of his own and Damian’s. He wishes he could, but the only man who could come close to fixing the jumbled mess of trauma living in Jason’s psyche is dead and buried, and with him the only chance of their ‘family’ ever playing nice long enough for holiday dinners or birthday parties, pretending to be normal.

Not that they’ve celebrated the holidays in years. And Dick doesn’t even _know_ when Damian’s birthday is.

“There a reason you called me out here? ‘Cause if not, I’m pretty sure I’ve got shit to do,” Jason says.

“Like what? It’s a quiet night.”

Jason chuckles. “‘Quiet’? Let’s see, this is Gotham, so I’m guessing there’s only been a few dozen murders, less than three explosions, and oh, maybe _one_ supervillain freakout.”

Dick has to laugh at that, and like magic, Jason starts laughing too. If he closes his eyes and ignores the roughness in Jason’s voice, the ache in his own bones, he can pretend he’s dressed up in baby blue and Jason is wearing red, yellow, and green. God. Baby blue. Red, yellow, _and_ green. What were they thinking? What was _Bruce_ thinking? ‘Go, Robin, distract the criminals with your awful fashion while I save the civilians’?

“Stay with me a bit,” Dick gasps, out of breath from laughing and getting his ribs fractured earlier that evening. They hurt, but not any more or less than everything else. “C’mon, Jay, don’t leave me hanging.”

“Y’see, this is why you and my replacement never figured out how to go freelance properly, why you both ended up running back to Bats or joining some shitty team. You gotta learn to weather the nights by yourself, Dickie.” Jason grabs him by the shoulders and yanks his head into his lap. Dick presses his cheek into Jason’s thigh. “The kid’s never going to respect you if you can’t handle yourself.”

“I know,” Dick murmurs. Having someone else’s warm body pressed against his own for the first time in months is enough to send him right off. In his dreams, he performs for a cheering crowd, and when he falls, Bruce catches him.

**Author's Note:**

> fellas is it gay to love these dumb robins


End file.
